


We are Gathered Here Today

by CatKing_Catkin



Category: Senjou no Valkyria | Valkyria Chronicles
Genre: Battle, Canon - Video Game, Character Death, Character Development, Comrades in Arms, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Kloden Wildwood, Male-Female Friendship, Minor Character Death, Phobias, Soldiers, Video Game Mechanics, Wakes & Funerals, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-26
Updated: 2012-11-26
Packaged: 2017-11-19 15:09:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/574653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatKing_Catkin/pseuds/CatKing_Catkin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their mission in the Kloden Wildwood should have gone smoothly - one team would take out the anti-tank guns, and then the Edelweiss would advance with the rest, to capture the Imperial base and end their presence in the area. It was a good plan. It should have worked.</p><p>Thanks to the impetuousness of one Scout, however, the battle is not without cost. Montley Leonard attempts to end the battle early, attempts to find a shortcut, attempts to go above and beyond, and he pays for it with his life. But at his funeral, preparing to say the words that get said over the grave of every soldier, Welkin learns the rest of the story from the Lancer he'd died saving. Despite his fears and his phobias, Montley had raced to the rescue when Yoko had been gunned down, and the impatient Scout had managed, just for a little while, to outrun death itself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We are Gathered Here Today

**Author's Note:**

> Written in honor of the fact that this is actually exactly what happened the first time I played through the Kloden Wildwood in the original Valkyria Chronicles. I did discover a back way in, and managed to rush Yoko right into the middle of a meat grinder. I sent in Montley after her to call a medic, and Montley was chewed up an instant later. I didn't have enough CP to save him, too, and next turn a tank rolled right over him.
> 
> I restarted after that. Montley and Nancy were my two favorite scouts.

The funeral of Montley Leonard was well attended.

Welkin was there, as squad leader. He hadn't known Montley that well - the attack on the Kloden Wood supply camp had been the boy's first mission out with Squad 7.

Alicia was there, as his friend. She'd known Montley a little better, as a fellow scout with a little more time on her hands to spend with her fellow soldiers that Welkin did not have.

Nancy DuFour, Jann Walker, and Herbert Nielson were the ones considered to have the most right to be there. They were the ones there to mourn, and only to mourn. They'd all been friends with Montley - good friends. They'd loved the impatient, capering, laughing sixteen year old scout, and they'd all come to pay their respects and say their goodbyes.

Friends of Nancy, Jann, and Herbert attended as well, largely to support their friend.

The scouts, shocktroopers, lancers, and engineers in attendance all wound up gathered around Montley's coffin, saying their last goodbyes before it was lowered into its final resting place, there to have the traditional last rites of a soldier spoken over it to ensure the soul's safe rest.

Welkin was to preside over the ceremony. It was his duty, as squad leader. Captain Varrot had approached him earlier that morning and told him what was traditionally said. What was traditionally said wasn't very personal, but in wartime leaders often never got the chance to get to know their men. Soldiers knew that, and most had come to be happy with the tradition. Tradition treated every soldier as a war hero and a good man (or woman), and if that gave comfort to friends left behind then so much the better.

Captain Varrot had told him all of this, quite gently and quite kindly for her. Welkin remembered and, to some degree, he agreed with what she'd said. Even so, he couldn't help but wish that he had _something_ more to say for the boy. He wished that he'd known _something_ about the scout - he knew who his friends had been, and that he'd had a paralyzing phobia of sharp objects that had probably made sticking him in a team with Yoko a bad idea. But that seemed a paltry bit of knowledge.

He'd had three friends and a phobia of sharp objects.

Was that really all he'd known about Montley Leonard?

Welkin, a few feet apart, watched the majority of Squad 7 assembled around the coffin and empty grave. Alicia stood beside him, far enough away to give him space but near enough to show that she was here for him. Virtually everyone was in attendance - Cezary had skipped off, and a few others had been too injured to be allowed out of bed by the medics. But despite the presence of Isara, Wavy, and Nadine, even the passionate Darcsen haters of the squad had come to pay their respects. Virtually everyone was in attendance...

"Yoko! Auntie Yoko!"

...and one more had just arrived.

Blinking himself out of his reverie, Welkin looked up to see Aisha tearing across the graveyard grounds to meet Yoko Martens. The lancer was clearly in poor shape still, bandages clear through her patched uniform as she limped towards the squad with the aid of crutches. But she managed to meet Aisha without being knocked over, and hugged the little girl tightly with her good arm.

Plenty of people had been badly injured during the attack, but Yoko was the only one who'd both needed and gotten a medic. He hadn't expected to see her here - from all he knew, she'd been gunned down trying to sneak into the supply camp from the back. From the intel he'd gathered afterwards, that would have put her right in the middle of a squad of shocktroopers, scouts, and an unusually powerful tank. It was a miracle she'd survived.

Welkin found himself going to her, waving Alicia away when she attempted to follow.

"I'll be back," he said, managing a smile for the first time that day. "Just a sec."

Aisha and Yoko looked up as he approached. With a twinge, he remembered that they'd both been in the same squad as Montley during the mission. Of course they'd come to pay their respects.

Welkin asked the easy question first, directed at Yoko. "How are you?"

Yoko nodded once, and smiled wryly. "I'll live, dear. You know me. He was quick."

Welkin nodded in his turn. "M-hm. I had noticed that. For a sniper, Oscar certainly can move when he has to."

Yoko looked puzzled, a frown creasing her bruised and cut face. "Oscar? He kept back. Not his fault, though. Who wouldn't, under fire like that? Poor kid signed up to keep back." Then, looking more and more perplexed by the second. "...no one told you?"

"I only knew anything had happened after we took the base," Welkin admitted, shamefaced. "I...didn't even know that the tank was there, until it was..."

"It was Montley."

*  *  *

_Their main job had been to take out the anti-tank guns, the better to let the Edelweiss advance._

_They'd done it. It had been impossible easy but, then, attacks from behind always were. Looking back, the smart thing would have been to circle around the marsh and rejoin Welkin's group._

_Montley had had other ideas. Montley was a smart kid, but he was also impatient. He wanted the battle to be over and done with, more than any of them._

_He'd discovered a path none of the others had seen, raced ahead as scouts always did, and come back all in a dither. He'd been yelling loud enough to attract every sniper and shocktrooper left in the area. A back way, he'd cried. He'd found a back way in._

_And so they'd followed him. Nancy DuFour, Yoko Martens, and Emile Bielart had been assigned with him to circle around the lake, and so they followed him. It was easy to follow someone with Montley’s easy, enthusiastic determination. And surely there wouldn't be much opposition at the back. After all, they would have been receiving news of the advance of the Edelweiss all this time. They wouldn't be looking for troops to come through the back._

_It had been hard to keep up with him, it always was. Montley ran ahead, on and on, taking special care to keep ahead of Yoko with her enormous tanker lance. Nancy in particular had wondered many times that day what Welkin had been thinking, partnering the stolid Lancer with the aichurophobic Scout. The presence of his phobia had been distracting Montley all day, making him even more reckless and hasty in an attempt to get away._

_He was a new Captain, still trying his best to get to know his squad. In the end, that was the most likely explanation._

_But despite the tension and the fear, they’d done well. The little band had cleared the way for the Edelweiss, and that should have been the end of it. They should have circled around the lake, joined up with the rest of the squad, and made their way to the enemy base._

_Then Montley had found the back way, and everything had changed._

_They shouldn’t have followed him. The survivors knew that, now. But they had. It had been hard to keep up, they’d made almost as much noise as he had calling for him to slow down. But slowing down would have put him closer to Yoko’s lance and further from ending the battle, and Montley hadn’t listened until they were right at the fence of the enemy base._

_“Aw, yeah!” he danced on the spot as they crouched behind a building that backed onto the fence. “This is great, this is great, this is great! We can sneak right in and take ‘em by surprise!”_

_“W-Wait a second. J-Just hold on.” Emile held up a hand and closed his eyes. “I hear…it’s a tank! If we just rush in…”_

_Montley frowned, his jubilation noticeably dimmed at the news. “A tank? Well, that’s just_ great! _What are we supposed to do about a tank?”_

_Yoko stepped forward, hefting her lance. “If I may be of assistance, dears…”_

_Montley visibly flinched back as Yoko stepped forward. But he nodded. “Y-Yeah. Yeah! We’ve got a lancer with us. So it’ll be fine. Right, Yoko?”_

_Yoko nodded and smiled her comforting smile. “Right. I’ll take point, everyone. Just follow me once it’s clear.”_

_The other three nodded._

_“Please be careful,” said Emile earnestly._

_"We’ll be right behind you!” added Nancy, nodding fervently._

_You’ll do great! Just rush on in and take ‘em by surprise!” cried Montley._

_Looking bolstered at their encouragement, Yoko nevertheless held a finger to her lips before she slipped the gate open and crept inside. She turned the corner and disappeared from their sight a second before all hell broke loose._

_Gunfire, cries of triumph from Imperial soldiers, cries of pain from Yoko. They realized it all at the same time – in their haste to have Yoko clear away the tank, they’d sent her right into a nest of foot soldiers._

_"Oh god!” cried Emile, burying his face in his hands and immediately beginning to panic. “Oh god, oh god, oh god!”_

_“Yoko!” screamed Nancy. “She, she can’t die!”_

_“She won’t!” cried Montley. “I, I won’t let her! Nancy, Emile, stay here! I’ll bring her back!”_

_“What?!” Buy Nancy’s cry came too late. Montley was already racing through the open gate. “Montley, wait for me!” But Montley was had already rounded the corner and the gunfire started up immediately. Now the crackle of a Gallian rifle fought against the roar of Imperial weaponry._

_“I’ll help. I, I have to help!” Nancy fumbled for her weapon. The multiple “clinks” that followed were suddenly the loudest, most horrible sounds in the world._

_“I…I dropped my bullets.” Nancy felt tears gathering in the corners of her eyes, hot and angry and ashamed. “I d-dropped my bullets! Emile, help me!”_

_The sniper did as he was bidden, dropping to his knees to help Nancy fumble for the bullets. With shaking fingers, the scout took them and fitted them into place, bringing it to her shoulder and aiming just as a figure came stumbling into view._

_Montley was not a large individual. He was thin and slight, the perfect Scout, the consummate runner. And so Emile or Nancy would never really know just how he was managing to race towards them while dragging Yoko over his shoulder, especially when he was bleeding from so many wounds._

_“Come on!” Montley yelled, jolting them both from their daze. “I need cover fire, now!”_

_He threw himself flat between them, obscured by Yoko’s body and screaming into his radio for the medic as two enemy scouts rounded the corner. Nancy raised her rifle and fired once, twice, three times, catching one scout in the chest and one in the head and dropping an enemy shocktrooper with an accidental shot to the shoulder. The unfortunate shocktrooper was close enough to them by then for Emile to finish him off._

_“Medic!” Montley was screaming. “Medic,_ medic! _”_

_The rumble of the tank was drawing nearer. Nancy and Emile grabbed onto Montley and Yoko and managed to hustle them back down the path and into the long grass by the lake. The deep blue of the Edelweiss was visible through the trees on the other side of the water, advancing at last. The minute it took for the medic to come into view and race towards their hiding place was an agonizing eternity for the scout and sniper._

_Mina saluted as she closed the gap between them before unloading her stretcher. “Someone called for a medic?”_

_Nancy and Emile nodded and led her to Yoko and Montley, both lying motionless and hidden and safe in the grass. “R-Right here,” said Emile, fighting back tears of fear and exhaustion. “Th-They both went rushing in, and…”_

_Mina nodded and sat down beside Yoko, opening her case of Ragnaid. “Right. Don’t worry – help is here, now.” She applied some Ragnaid to Yoko’s wounds, enough that by the time she stood up again, the lancer was breathing a little easier. With a strength that was surprising to see from her lanky frame, she easily hoisted Yoko onto her stretcher._

_"Wait! You forgot Montley!” cried Nancy, tugging on Mina’s sleeve. Mina paused and looked back at her, before looking further back to Montley. Her expression hardened, she shook her head._

_“I’m sorry,” she said, and they both knew that she meant it._

_Nancy’s grip was easy to pull away from, after that. The Scout sank slowly to her knees as the medic easily strapped Yoko to her stretcher. Emile limped over to her and knelt beside her. When he wrapped an arm around her, Nancy turned and buried her face in his shoulder, weeping loud enough to attract enemy snipers._

_Mina went back for Montley’s body. She was careful and tender, treating the lifeless corpse as though it were still a smiling young soldier. Settling him carefully over her shoulders in a fireman’s carry, she still managed to pick up Yoko’s stretcher without bowing the slightest under the enormous weight._

_"I’m sorry,” she said again, watching the sobbing Nancy and the silent Emile. “I am. But you two need to get under cover, quickly. This fight isn’t over, and I don’t want to carry off anyone else today.”_

_Emile nodded, his eyes glassy. “Y-Yeah,” he said. “We will, miss medic.” He looked down at Nancy and bit his lip. “We’ll be okay.”_

_Nancy nodded without pulling away from Emile. “Just go,” she whimpered. “And h-hurry. If Miss Yoko doesn’t get help…”_

_The medic nodded. “I won’t let you down.”_

_They never knew how she managed to race away dragging the injured Yoko and bearing Montley’s body. They never asked. It never seemed important._

*  *  *

“I…I don’t believe it.”

It was a patchy story, supplemented by what the medic had been able to tell Yoko later. But it was real. He hadn’t been there to see it, hadn’t been able to stop it, but it had all happened.

Yoko nodded, somber and sad. “If it weren’t for that kid, I never would have made it over the walls.” She raised a hand and brushed a few early tears from her eyes. “Montley spent all day trying to keep away from me, and in the end…”

“Montley was very brave!” said Aisha earnestly, refusing to move from Yoko’s side. “He was a good soldier!”

Welkin swallowed, and nodded. “Yes,” he said. “He was. I see that now.” He looked back at the cluster of soldiers around the coffin, at Alicia, who was still waiting for him. They were all waiting for him to do what it was his duty to do, say what it was traditional to say. Montley Leonard was dead. Words were all that any of them had left.

"Yoko, will you be all right?” he asked

Yoko nodded. “Turns out these old bones still have some kick to them.” And then she smiled wanly. “Go.”

It was one of the hardest things Welkin had ever done to turn away and walk back to the scene of the funeral. Alicia fell into step behind him, walked him to his place at the podium placed carefully at the head of the coffin. She stood beside him as Welkin gazed at the assembled Squad 7, as Squad 7 gazed silently back.

“W-We…” Welkin cleared his throat, and tried again. The microphone amplified his voice so much that it almost frightened him. “We are gathered here today to honor the passing of one of our own. Montley Leonard was a credit to all Scouts, and to the Gallian Army as a whole. He died bravely, serving his country to the best of his abilities…”

And then Welkin saw Nancy and Emile, hugging one another and crying, two children who hadn’t been able to save their friend. And then he saw Yoko, limping into the crowd with Aisha practically sticking to her side. He remembered her standing proud, her anti-tank lance gleaming in the sunlight.

He remembered Montley Leonard, who had never stopped running, no matter how much danger and fear might try to slow him down; who had even, for a little while, managed to outrun death.

“Montley was brave,” he repeated. “Bravery doesn’t mean that you aren’t afraid. We all know that. Bravery means that you are willing to stand against your fears, and fight them until the bitter end. Montley did just that.

I’m sure most of you knew that he had a deep seated fear of sharp objects. I remember that he used to even refuse to use knives in the mess hall. Isn’t that right? Some of us may have considered that a liability – he could barely get near a Lancer in battle, not even one of us.

But in the end, when it was one of our Lancers in need of his help, when only he stood between her and death, Montley came racing to the rescue. He loved to run – I’m sure you all knew that, about him. In the face of overwhelming enemy defenses that neither of them should have survived, Montley Leonard raced into danger and raced out again with his teammate on his back. It is because of his bravery in the face of danger and in the face of his own fear that he only bury one soldier today, instead of two. We are gathered here today to honor Montley Leonard, who was not just a scout. He did not just serve his country, he cared about everyone in it, even to the bitter end. And he will be missed, by his friends and by his squad mates, but at the same time I hope you all will honor the example he set for us.”


End file.
